Focus on predicting the future. SAS Institute has a leading capability in predictive analytics that can be leveraged to develop sophisticated forecasting processes and scenario-based planning. This capability complements a well-rounded and well-integrated set of business performance solutions.

1. For Business Process & Applications Professionals
October 10, 2007
SAS Institute Has Arrived As A Leader In Business
Performance Solutions
The Forrester Wave™ Vendor Summary, Q4 2007
by Paul D. Hamerman
with Sharyn Leaver, Elisse Gaynor, and Meghan Donnelly
EXECUT I V E S U M MA RY
Not a prominent player in business performance solutions (BPS) in the past, SAS Institute has,
somewhat surprisingly, made a great deal of progress lately with a renewed focus on performance
management applications. It now has a solid set of BPS offerings that are well integrated on its business
intelligence (BI) platform, with particular depth in predictive analytic forecasting, cost and profitability
management, and industry-specific solutions. Although SAS Institute’s performance management
products are well integrated on a scalable platform, usability remains an area for improvement.
SAS IS BEST SUITED FOR FORWARD-LOOKING COMPANIES
SAS Institute is a privately-held, $2 billion business intelligence vendor headquartered in Cary, North
Carolina. In 2002, SAS Institute acquired ABC Technologies, a leading cost and profitability solution.
Rather than continue down a path of acquisitions of business performance capabilities, however, SAS
has elected to build its product suite using native technologies. Although it has taken several years to
complete the development of a cohesive set of BPS offerings, SAS Institute has accomplished its goal and
ranks among the leaders in this category.
Forrester evaluated SAS Institute’s current offering and strategy for BPS against 83 criteria (see Figure 1).
The SAS Institute performance management product set has strong forecasting and cost and profitability
management capabilities on a solid BI foundation, but needs to improve overall usability. This means
that the product is an especially good fit for buyers that:
· Focus on predicting the future. SAS Institute has a leading capability in predictive analytics that
can be leveraged to develop sophisticated forecasting processes and scenario-based planning. This
capability complements a well-rounded and well-integrated set of business performance solutions.
· Require scalable, industry-specific performance solutions. Large enterprises in certain industries
including banking, insurance, retail, manufacturing, and telecommunications can leverage industry-
specific analytic solutions as well as the overall strength of the SAS Institute business intelligence
platform.
To see how SAS Institute stacks up against nine other competitors, see the Forrester Wave™ evaluation of
the BPS market.1
Headquarters
Forrester Research, Inc., 400 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139 USA
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2. SAS Institute Has Arrived As A Leader In Business Performance Solutions 2
For Business Process & Applications Professionals
Figure 1 SAS Institute Evaluation Overview
CURRENT OFFERING
Planning and budgeting SAS Institute has good modeling structure support and flexibility, predefined
functional models, and a particular strength in predictive planning and
forecasting.
Financial consolidations and SAS Institute has a well-supported statutory global consolidations capability
reporting and very good tools for GL data integration and controls; no significant gaps.
Strategy and performance SAS Institute has highly functional scorecards and dashboards, an extensive
library of KPIs, and good support of strategy frameworks, but the graphical
elements are not so compelling.
Cost and profitability SAS Institute excels in this area with both activity-based costing and
analysis profitability management applications.
Functional and SAS Institute offers good functional and industry-specific performance analytics
industry-specific solutions.
performance management
Business intelligence (BI) SAS Institute has strong support for multidimensional BI platforms, data
foundation integration, and portals. Reporting tools are powerful, but may be difficult to
work with for nontechnical users.
Technology characteristics SAS Institute has highly scalable BI and BPS solutions and a high degree of
design flexibility, but usability is not a strong suit.
Hosting and outsourcing SAS Institute does not offer hosting for its Performance Management
applications, but all products are sold on a subscription basis (a prerequisite for
SaaS).
Customer support SAS Institute has a good upgrade program, and maintenance is provided as
part of the subscription. Customer references were good overall, but somewhat
inconsistent.
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
© 2007, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
October 10, 2007

3. SAS Institute Has Arrived As A Leader In Business Performance Solutions 3
For Business Process & Applications Professionals
Figure 1 SAS Institute Evaluation Overview (Cont.)
STRATEGY
Product strategy and vision SAS Institute has a comprehensive vision for Performance Management with a
differentiated approach for predictive insights. It has extensive thought
leadership programs and content, broad BPS product capabilities, and a
well-integrated offering that focuses on large enterprises.
Technology strategy and ”The SAS Institute technology strategy focuses on four cornerstones: scalability,
vision interoperability, manageability, and usability. SAS Institute uses an open
metadata architecture to construct all offerings and sits on external ‘standards’
committees to keep up to date and influence direction. A key focus is to
provide uniform access to structured and unstructured information across the
enterprise with advanced analytics embedded into the reporting layer. Our
common solutions layer wraps process management around these capabilities
to ensure consistency/optimal flow. We continually focus on performance —
developing and optimizing new procedures that introduce major speed gains.”
R&D/product development In 2006, 24% of SAS Institutes’s revenue was reinvested in research and
development. Historically, the percentage reinvested in research and
development ranges between 24% and 36%.
Strategic alliances SAS Institute has strong partnering programs in place for services and
platforms, but it doesn’t focus much effort on complementary applications
partners.
MARKET PRESENCE
Financial viability SAS Institute is a $2 billion private software vendor, which Forrester believes is
in very sound financial condition.
Installed base SAS Institute has less adoption of the financial BPS applications (more than
300) than several competitors, but it has more substantial use of the strategy
and measurement as well as costing products.
Delivery footprint SAS Institute has 400 sales and distribution locations and 3,500 company and
partner implementation resources.
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
Go online to download additional in-depth data and scores for this vendor and other vendors
included in this Forrester Wave evaluation.
© 2007, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
October 10, 2007

4. SAS Institute Has Arrived As A Leader In Business Performance Solutions 4
For Business Process & Applications Professionals
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
Online Resource
The underlying spreadsheet for Figure 1 is available online. The spreadsheet includes more detailed
data and scores for this vendor.
This detailed data and scores for this vendor are also available online through an Excel-based vendor
comparison tool that provides detailed product evaluations and customizable rankings.
The Forrester Wave Methodology
We conduct primary research to develop a list of vendors that meet our criteria to be evaluated
in this market. From that initial pool of vendors, we then narrow our final list. We choose these
vendors based on: 1) product fit; 2) customer success; and 3) Forrester client demand. We eliminate
vendors that have limited customer references and products that don’t fit the scope of our evaluation.
After examining past research, user need assessments, and vendor and expert interviews, we develop
the initial evaluation criteria. To evaluate the vendors and their products against our set of criteria,
we gather details of product qualifications through a combination of lab evaluations, questionnaires,
demos, and/or discussions with client references. We send evaluations to the vendors for their
review, and we adjust the evaluations to provide the most accurate view of vendor offerings and
strategies.
We set default weightings to reflect our analysis of the needs of large user companies — and/or other
scenarios as outlined in the Forrester Wave document — and then score the vendors based on a
clearly defined scale. These default weightings are intended only as a starting point, and readers are
encouraged to adapt the weightings to fit their individual needs through the Excel-based tool. The
final scores generate the graphical depiction of the market based on current offering, strategy, and
market presence. Forrester intends to update vendor evaluations regularly as product capabilities
and vendor strategies evolve.
ENDNOTES
Forrester assessed 10 leading business performance solutions (BPS) vendors across 83 criteria in a product
1
evaluation. Cognos, Oracle, and SAS Institute were found to lead the category with overall breadth of
functionality and aggressive strategies for competing in this rapidly evolving market. Business Objects
and SAP both showed strong solution functionality, but have considerable work ahead to integrate
recent pure-play acquisitions into more seamless BPS offerings. Clarity Systems leads the BPS pure plays
with a very strong planning and budgeting solution. Applix and Longview Solutions, though lacking as
much out-of-the-box functionality and scorecarding capabilities as the large vendors, made solid Strong
Performer showings as well based on their flexibility to handle unique customer requirements. Infor is also
© 2007, Forrester Research, Inc. Reproduction Prohibited
October 10, 2007

5. SAS Institute Has Arrived As A Leader In Business Performance Solutions 5
For Business Process & Applications Professionals
a Strong Performer with a mature BPS suite, but needs a more aggressive strategy for competing outside
of its enterprise resource planning (ERP) installed base. Microsoft’s initial release of Microsoft Office
PerformancePoint Server 2007 in September puts it in the mix as a Strong Performer with an assertive
vision and a solid technology foundation, but the solution needs to mature in terms of breadth and depth
of functionality. See the October 10, 2007, “The Forrester Wave™: Business Performance Solutions, Q4 2007”
report.
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